Attention #hashtavists: If you plan on harnessing the power of the internet – and specifically, social media – to put pressure on politicians to heed your policy advice, you might want to file the necessary paperwork lest you run afoul of the federal lobbying watchdog.

According to a new bulletin from Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd, if you get paid to push a particular perspective point of view in the public arena, you may be obliged to register your lobbying activities even if you have no intention of targeting public office holders for direct contact.

“For the purposes of the [Lobbying] Act, grass-roots communication occurs when, for payment and on behalf of a client or employer, individuals appeal to the public to communicate with public office holders about a registrable topic, through such means as advertisements, websites, organization of a letter writing campaign, or through social media tools such as (but not limited to) Facebook or Twitter,” the bulletin notes.

To put it more simply: If you get paid to mount an #insertyourgoodcausehere campaign with the express intention of getting the attention of politicians, policy advisors and anyone else who could influence a decision, you are, in fact, engaged in lobbying – which is a perfectly respectable activity, but one that does come with certain reporting responsibilities.

That would include outreach efforts related to the development of “any legislative proposal” from the government or an individual member before the House or Senate and “the passage, defeat or amendment:” of any bill, resolution or regulation, as well as more general public policy initiatives or government programs and the awarding of contracts, grants or contributions.

Meanwhile, organizations that launch such efforts on their own behalf using in-house resources may also need to register, but only if the activities constitute a “significant part of the duties” of a single employee or, if performed by multiple staffers, the equivalent thereof.

The new guidelines are unlikely to have much of an impact on established advocacy work, as in most cases, those lobbyists – and, where applicable, in-house lobby teams – are not only registered, but have also listed grass-roots communications as one of the modes of persuasion they might employ.

As for less experienced campaigners who may not yet have run up against the federal lobbying regime, they’ll only have to file formal notice of their intentions if they pay an outside expert to run the operation or expend a significant portion of their own resources to do so.

For a step-by-step guide on how to stay on the right side of the lobbying commissioner, click here.

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